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Thursday, 08 December 2005 03:25

Listeners who gave up on the Oils ’round the time that Bush Sr. left office ought to perk up and give Capricornia a spin.

In the ’80s, Australian group Midnight Oil were one of the most potent, politically aware bands in the world. Unlikely mini-hits such as “Beds Are Burning” and “Power and the Passion” combined catchy, danceable rhythms with topical concerns (the former was about Aboriginal land rights; in an era of egoism and excess of all types, it stood out like a sore thumb). In the ’90s, though, Midnight Oil became unexpectedly low-profile: their albums Earth and Sun and Moon, Breathe, and Redneck Wonderland made little impact outside their native land, and though each had great material, some of the spark of the Oils’ past work seemed to be missing. This year, with a brand-new label (Liquid) and a new collection titled Capricornia, the Oils may restore most of their previous fan base.

The fresh-sounding recordings here were produced in Sydney by Warne Livesey, and if not as giddily brilliant as, say, Diesel and Dust, this is still a mostly passionate, focused work. Midnight Oil remain proudly and uncompromisingly Australian, and they are clearly not interested in trends or the perceptions of the fickle. As Garrett sings in “Too Much Sunshine,” quite straightforwardly, “Well we do the same things that we always do/Nothing changes but the colour changes hue/I don’t come to bury you/The trouble is with you.” Listeners who gave up on the Oils ’round the time that Bush Sr. left office ought to perk up and give Capricornia a spin.